“This is the book that broke the spell of French progressivism,” says Nathan Pinkoski in his foreword to Éric Zemmour’s “The Suicide of France” (Encounter Books). Could it also be the book that helps break the spell of American progressivism?
In May of 1968, France’s far-left sparked a massive social uprising similar to America’s ’68 Summer of Love but even more explosive. Thousands of students, furious with France’s conservative norms, threw up barricades, clashed with police, sparked a massive workers strike and tried to create a total revolution. These radical nihilists worked to bring down France’s decent and free Fifth Republic, lauded faraway Maoist-Communist tyranny, and dismissed the Judeo-Christian traditions of the West.
Just as America’s leftists have mythologized the 1960s counterculture movement, France’s progressives have mythologized the chaos and destruction of May 1968. The nihilistic radicals’ goal was to overthrow the government. They failed in this at the time, but in the six decades since they have largely achieved their aims.
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